A WEST Australian medical expert wants families to pay a $5000-plus “baby levy” at birth and an annual carbon tax of up to $800 a child.

Writing in today’s Medical Journal of Australia, Associate Professor Barry Walters said every couple with more than two children should be taxed to pay for enough trees to offset the carbon emissions generated over each child’s lifetime.

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Professor Walters, clinical associate professor of obstetric medicine at the University of Western Australia and the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth, called for condoms and “greenhouse-friendly” services such as sterilisation procedures to earn carbon credits.

Let’s see: a huge new tax increase? Check. The government intruding into the most intimate parts of people’s lives? Check. Would this policy have rather severe “unintended” consequences for Australia’s tax base, population, etc.? Check. And of course, the motive behind this is to deal with a crisis that may or more likely, may not happen in 100 years or so. So, in other words, is the cure worse than the disease? Check.